We
presume that rape, sexual assault, or sexual violence are
straightforwardly and self-evidently bad, wrong, and harmful.

Yet,
the way we commonly doubt, dispute, and deny rape, and diminish, deride, and
denigrate those who have been raped, make the reality of rape anything but
clear-cut. Worse is how those harmed and violated are both doubly blamed and
doubly punished – by attackers and by responders - for the wrongs done against
them. Worse still is how institutions for whom safety
and protection are priorities, routinely and procedurally permit rape, promote
(in the most literal sense) rapists, and publicly persecute the victims and
survivors of sexual violence.

Why
are there so many discrepancies between how we feel about sexual violence and
the perverse way we respond to sexual violence?

Follow
the links for a sampling of the contradictions and hypocrisies baked into our
institutional responses to sexual violence.